Horse Trials Info - ratings, feedback, and more!: Champagne Run

12/01/2005

Comment here on Champagne Run. See first post for details!

At 6:13 AM, Anonymous said...: Since this event is at the horse park, the terrain, as many know, is small rolling hills. Terrain isn't much of an issue at this event. I rode novice, but walked the training and preliminary courses.

Novice and training courses seemed like an afterthought in comparison to the preliminary course. The prelim. course looked quite substantial and asked FANTASTIC questions. It looked like a blast, but a challenge. It seemed as though a lot of thought and effort went into the upper level courses, and then, the week before the event, they dragged out the portables, and voila, training and novice courses. Jumps on both courses were quite small, although there was a 1/2 coffin on the novice course. The first novice jump was also a mere 8-10 strides out of the start box...perhaps not a great way to start cross country on a greenish horse. Training level riders felt the course was too easy to be in the middle of the season...more of a move up course.

Time was easy to make on both the novice and training courses, as the terrain is easy to gallop. The ground was hard (though it is Kentucky in July, what do you expect), and a bit slick in spots.